North Bay Snowmobile Club President Shawn Flindall (far right) out on his sled. He says the area trail system is in fantastic condition. PHOTO SUBMITTED.
Shawn Flindall’s email from an out of town snowmobile enthusiast really sums up the season.
“One sentence sums up our ride, the North Bay Snowmobile Club truly has the best snowmobile trails on earth,” the visitor stated in an email to Flindall, who is the President of the North Bay Snowmobile Club.
Flindall was excited to get the email but he’s not surprised with the response.
“It has been unbelievably good,” Flindall said about the snowmobile season this winter.
“The last few years, I mean it’s rare anymore that we don’t get a 3-day rain storm some time in January, but we didn’t get that this year and although February has been cold, that cold is really good for our trails. It’s really great for building a base and keeping a base so the trail system has been phenomenal.”
Flindall says snowmobile dealers around the region say they can’t keep sleds in stock this year.
“This is the third consecutive year we can say its been an amazing sledding season and as a result there’s some really great enthusiasm out there, there’s way more traffic out there where people are spending money and its great for northern economies,” he said.
The Ontario Federation of Snowmobile clubs recently estimated that Snowmobiling has 1.7 billion dollar economic impact annually in Ontario.
Flindall says the great trails have meant a lot of new faces heading north.
“Everyone I talk to on the trails these days, none of them are locals, they are all from southern Ontario or the States. Lots of people from Windsor, Hamilton and Toronto. Although there is lots of snowmobiling happening in Barrie and Huntsville, you really don’t get into good trails until you hit North Bay,” he said.
Now Flindall and other snowmobile enthusiasts hope the cold weather holds up in the region, so this long snowmobile season continues well into March.
“Ice steps are higher than normal, snow depths are higher than normal and equivalent to the past couple of years where we have had great snow depths,” said Flindall about the mid February conditions.
“Last year we had a record season and we were riding very close to the end of March which was highly unusual. Usually trails close right around March break and we got a couple of weeks out of if last year so we are hoping for the same but its all based on Mother Nature right. If we get a lot of mild weather the trails really fall apart quickly. The cold weather is what really holds the base together and mild weather just causes that base to fall apart.“
